A Thing Of Beauty

A photography project based around Dublin's drag scene. Launched in September 2015, featuring profiles on various queens and kings throughout the Dublin gay club circuit.

[dublindragproject]

"Drag isn't about someone coming up to you at the end of the night and saying "oh you look the best". It's not about that. It's about somebody expressing themselves. That's the whole point of the drag - it's caterpillar to butterfly stuff. It's supposed to be transformative, you're supposed to give up the boring person you are day by day and become some fabulous creature"

[dublindragproject]

"I set myself a limit that I’d stop doing drag at twenty six which gives me a year. I said that when I was twenty one and I thought twenty six was ages away but now it’s actually getting so close I’m like “crap”.

[dublindragproject]

"I think if I did stop doing drag, I’d have to move out of Dublin. Because you’re always going to be a drag queen to everyone. I know drag queens who stopped doing drag about five, six years ago and they still get called by their drag name, everyone knows them as a drag queen. That’s not what I want if I leave drag. So if next year if I do quit I’ll say “goodbye Dublin. Time to go somewhere where no-one knows my past life”. Not that I’m ashamed of doing drag, obviously I’m not, but if I’m not doing it anymore … I don’t really want to be known for it. There’s so much of your personal life that gets fucked up because of you doing drag. It’s so hard to form actual relationships – friendship wise or romantic – when you do drag. Especially on the scene, everybody wants to be your friend because they think because you’re a drag queen you’re so much fun then they get to know you and they realise you’re really boring. And I don’t want to have to deal with that."